ISSUE 1 2011


NEWS Emirates to serve Basra


Emirates is back in Iraq for the first time since the end of the Gulf war


Emirates SkyCargo is launching a service from its Dubai main hub to Basra on 2 February. The carrier expects to move around 130 tonnes of freight per week to the city, which is home to the country’s largest seaport and close to key oil fields. Some return traffic is also expected, mainly petroleum products, and commodities such as grains, wool and dates for the Iraqi communities in places like the US, China, India and the UK, all of which can be served on Emirates worldwide network via Dubai. The A330-200 passenger and freight service will operate four times a week,


departing Dubai at 13:45 and touch down at Basra at 14:45 the same day. It returns at 16:15, touching down in Dubai at 19:10. It will be the Dubai flag carrier’s first service


to Iraq since the end of the Gulf War, a plan to operate to Baghdad earlier in the year having been postponed. Ram Menen, Emirates’ divisional senior


vice president for cargo said: “Iraq’s recovery is already well under way and this new trade route will create further opportunity for growth. The US and Europe are key trading partners with Iraq and we expect to capitalise on this through our 25 European destinations and services to Houston, San Francisco, LA and New York.”


First through rail freight service for Eurotunnel subsidiary


GB Railfreight (GBRf) has launched its first international service through the Channel Tunnel since its acquisition by Eurotunnel in May 2010. A service will run initially three days a week from Daventry in the Midlands to Novarro in Northern Italy, with container shipper, DFDS, as one of the launch customers. The first train operated


overnight on 10-11 January, hauled as far as the English end of the Tunnel by a GBRf class 66 diesel locomotive, where it was exchanged for a Class 92 electric loco operated by Eurotunnel’s rail subsidiary, Europorte Channel. Meanwhile, GBRf managing


director John Smith has also been given responsibility for Europorte Channel and has put in place a team, headed by operations director Kevin Walker and supported by Neil Crossland, commercial director, to develop rail freight services through the Channel Tunnel. Eurotunnel aims to offer


a one-stop shop for hauliers wishing to send goods by rail from the UK through the Tunnel to France and beyond to the rest of the Continent. Groupe Eurotunnel chairman


and chief executive Jacques Gounon said: “Bringing GB Railfreight into the Eurotunnel


Rail grants axed


The Department for Transport’s (DfT) is to axe the Freight Facilities Grants scheme in England, to the anger of the Rail Freight Group. The latter said that the grants, which have been in place since 1974, have significantly stimulated rail freight growth and modal shift, particularly for smaller businesses. The grants help companies invest in new facilities such as sidings and terminals, where they would help shift freight from road to rail or waterway. RFG Policy Manager, Maggie Simpson, said: “This Government has previously stated its commitment to reducing UK carbon emissions and supporting smaller businesses to invest. This decision makes a mockery of those promises.” And an equally disappointed Christopher Snelling, head of global supply chain policy, at the Freight Transport Association, said: “All three major parties


at Westminster have previously spoken of a commitment to greener transport choices, with warm words about the importance of rail freight. Sadly, this announcement suggests that warm words is all they were.” He pointed out that while


the government has retained revenue support grants, which pay for ongoing operating costs of rail and waterway services, “the loss of the facilities grant will make it less desirable and more cost prohibitive to invest in the sort of machinery and technology, like cranes and other freight handling equipment, needed to make rail and water borne freight a reality for companies currently focusing solely on road freight.” RFG said it was seeking urgent


talks with the DfT to determine a way forwards for its members and was also awaiting a decision by the Scottish Parliament on the future of FFGs in the country.


Group was intended to give us a foothold in the UK rail freight market and help us boost the growth of rail freight through the Channel Tunnel. John Smith is the right person to drive this market for us and this first contract for GB Railfreight and Europorte Channel is just the start of what we can achieve.” John Smith added that rail


freight services between Great Britain and continental Europe was “a huge market with great potential.” In a later press conference


to announce Eurotunnel’s 2010 traffic and revenue figures, Gounon that his immediate


ambition was to increase the service to five days a week. However, “we will work in partnership with key customers rather than answering every request to quote,” Gounon explained. He admitted that through


rail freight traffic through the Tunnel was currently at a low ebb following rail strikes in France and in Belgium, and that a target to move 3m tonnes a year by 2012 had been put back to 2016. Total volumes handled by the


Tunnel had also been badly hit by the French railways’ decision to withdraw wagonload services.


SHIPPING: CONTINUED


CMA CGM is extending its Black Pearl service to the West Coast of South America, to Ecuador, Peru, Panama and Chile. Connections are available to and from North Europe via the operator’s Kingston hub on its ECS service.


Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) has opened its own office in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. MOL already has offices and agents throughout Africa and its shipping services connect the continent with the rest of the world.


Cyprus called on the EU to take action to end Turkey’s embargo on Cypriot vessels and maritime transport from the Cypriot ports of Limassol and Larnaca at the Transport Council on 2 December in Brussels. The issue is currently blocking Turkey’s accession to the EU.


PD Ports’ Teesport has handled its 150,000th container through its terminals for the first time within a calendar year. Two-and-a-half years ago, the north-east hub was handling little more than half that figure, said the managing director of PD Ports’ unitised business, Frans Calje. He described the achievement as “a testimony to the success of our portcentric logistics strategy and the hard work that went into making it a success.” In 2009, Teesport handled around 100,000 containers. Work is due to start in 2011 on the first, £15 million, phase of Teesport’s


container terminal expansion from its current 235,000teu to 450,000teu a year.


The Bristol Port Company has started marine site investigation works for the £600m, 18-metre draught deep-sea container terminal in Avonmouth. It has also appointed a consortium called Construct Bristol Terminal (CBT) under an early-contractor services contract to undertake site investigation work. A Harbour Revision Order, granted in March 2010, gave Bristol Port permission to build a deep-sea container terminal capable of handling up to 1.5 million teu a year.


Port operator DP World said that it handled 12% more containers in the fourth quarter of 2010 compared with the last quarter of 2009. In 2010 as a whole, it handled 49.6 million teu at its 50 terminals in 28 countries, up 14% on 2009. Growth was driven by strong performance in Australia, America and Asia Pacific Regions along with the continuing return of volumes in Europe.


DP World opened a new container terminal in Port Qasim near Karachi in Pakistan on 12 January, with the arrival today of the CMA CGM Wagner. It boosts capacity by around 300,000teu to around 1.2 million teu a year.


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